Tuesday, August 27, 2019

What is Akrasia (incontinence) according to Aristotle in Book 7 of Essay

What is Akrasia (incontinence) according to Aristotle in Book 7 of Nicomachean Ethics - Essay Example According to Aristotle, the feelings of an incontinent person are not usually more powerful than their reason as people have been made to believe (Aristotle 106). Thus, an incontinent person could also be driven by reason as well as by their feelings and emotions. Other philosophers like Socrates believed that incontinence presents a scenario where individuals have let their emotions control their lives and they have found it difficult to control their emotions. Ã¢â¬Å"It would be strange... if knowledge was in a man, something else could master it and drag it about like a slaveÃ¢â¬  (Aristotle 107). This was an anomaly that Aristotle sought to correct. Aristotle believes that it is on the basis of akrasia that people are influenced or propelled to act irrationally and this is not to say that these people are not logical in nature. Aristotle also opined that the incontinent people have not totally lost their sense of reasoning and even in cases that there seems to be no appreciable amount of reasoning in them, these people could still decide to behave logically, but they prefer to use the pleasures of their emotions (Aristotle 108). Aristotle uses these arguments to explain the uncontrolled and unrestrained nature of the incontinent people that it is not due to the fact that they are incapable of keeping their emotions at bay and this is really not the reason that they behave in an irrational manner. Aristotle believed that the fact that incontinent people have knowledge of their actions goes a long way to show that they also make logical calculations and people should not see them as irrational human beings that are only driven by their feelings. Aristotle believed that akrasia does not imply irrationality or ignorance as he was of the opinion that akrasia is not a total neglect of reason and that people should not assume that incontinence results only from pleasurable feelings. Aristotle agrees that the incontinent person is